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Virgin Media is set to launch a broadband service offering speeds of up to 300Mbps as it looks to stifle the impact of BT’s upgrade to faster internet speeds.

The cable company will launch a new product this month called ‘Virgin Fibre’ that will offer speeds of between 100Mbps and 300Mbps, which would be a third faster than its current top rate.

The new ultrafast broadband packages will be advertised as offering “speeds that start where our rivals finish” as the cable company looks to dampen the impact of a move by BT’s Openreach division to speed up the national broadband network this year that will enable other companies including Sky and TalkTalk to offer ultrafast speeds.

Openreach is upgrading its network to G.Fast technology that speeds up the existing copper networks. The technology can offer speeds of up to 330Mbps and it connected its first customer to a trial network this month in Gillingham, Kent. The company plans to roll out G.Fast to 10 million homes by 2020.